ABSTRACT
I embarked on this history of Bolshevik and Stalinist spatial conceptions and practices in the hope that it would reveal some hitherto overlooked dynamics of Soviet state development in the interwar period. As well as considering what specific conclusions we may infer from the case study, therefore, it is important to reflect on the extent to which we may generalise on the basis of this local account about Soviet state-building and the evolution of territorial politics and modes of rule in this period. (Certainly, no inferences should be drawn from this case study regarding the dynamics of wartime or post-war Stalinist development, or for the post-Stalin era, since these periods fall outside my chronological purview.)
